It was 1866, and I was sold into slavery separated from my families. I was only 5 years old when it all started. I was sent to a man named John Roosevelt, a man who's taste for the red water burns in his heart because his daily whippings seemed like it. My first job on the farm was to breed the animals; pigs, cows, chicken, and sheep. After that, I had to plant the crops, like cotton. If I made one little mistake, 5 lashes were on my path. It was until my 14th birthday where my dad was sold to my owner. I finally got to see him again, but it wasn't a happy moment for my father.

I imagined my owner beating my father with his whip. I imagined the red water dripping from my father's back. I imagined all the scars my father would have on him. These imaginations were never seen by me, though. I never understood why my owner didn't beat my father. It was only until I heard screams one night I couldn't sleep. I finally understood why my father wasn't beat in the day, he was being whipped when I was asleep. My owner was planning a trick so we could trust him, but it was all a lie. One night, though, we were sold to a new owner, a man named Robert Johnson.

We were on the road to Robert's home, in a big plantation. I saw sheep, chicken, cows, pigs, goats, horses, and so much more. I saw the cotton, tobacco, so much crops to be sold. When we entered the slave home, I finally saw my mother. My mother was very pretty, a woman who taught me lessons to be strong and never give up. My mom told me of a place were everyone would gather and one man would preach to us all. We went to this place, and it was full of dancing, singing, and joy. Some people decided to stay in the back, as it was in a forest. Our home in this plantation was a hut made out of sticks and stones. But one night, they were all burned down by our master, because he believed slaves were nothing but trash. He believed they should sleep on the ground with all the bugs and insects crawling about.

Our master was very cruel to us all. He whipped us for his own amusement and pleasure. "You are only my toys, and I can do whatever I want to my toys," he once told me. This made me very angry, so I told everyone else. We decided to start a rebellion. Our first step was to break tools and sneak in food. Then we refused to do our work. Eventually, we decided to attack our slave owner, and escape from his grasp. We did manage to escape, and we went to another state. That's when we were captured, and were sent to be tried in a court. I didn't understand anything that was going on as I didn't speak English then. They had found no evidence of our owner, and declared us free. So they released us and we were free to live as citizens. We were now a whole person, not three-fifths of a person. Many years later, after a Civil War, all of our brothers and sisters were now a whole person too.